


Three Brights

by 100demons



Category: Naruto
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Pre-Canon, War Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 12:16:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1510115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/100demons/pseuds/100demons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>War, Asuma has come to realize, is just another word for waiting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Brights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AwayLaughing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwayLaughing/gifts).



War, Asuma has come to realize, is just another word for waiting.

Waiting to die, waiting to kill, waiting for something to happen in the godforsaken mud swamps while the oversized mosquitoes drain him dry, leaving him an empty husk of a body to keep on waiting around in. 

“Chrysanthemum,” Kurenai hisses, slapping the card down with a harsh crack. 

Asuma bites down hard on the end of a toothpick, tasting wood shavings and dust. “One man’s trash,” he says, and picks it up with his purple ribbon chrysanthemum, giving him the full September suite. “Another man’s treasure.”

“You’re cheating,” Kakashi says in a flat voice.

“I’m not the one wearing a mask stuffed full of specials,” Asuma says, shuffling the cards around in his hands. 

“You can’t prove anything,” Kakashi says and with a flick of his fingers, reveals a triple pairing of clover cards fanning delicately in his long fingers.

“The matter won’t be settled until you take your mask off.” Kurenai tosses her long wild hair over a shoulder impatiently, trickles of sweat beading down her white throat. “And we all know you won’t do that, just like we all know that Asuma’s probably counting cards and planning on robbing us of our candy ration coupons.” 

“Liberating, not robbing,” Asuma corrects, scooping up a cherry blossom card. 

The air is too thick and humid to breathe in; it clogs up Asuma’s nose with water and smells damp like an old mildewed bathroom. Nothing like real Fire Country air, hot and dry as a bone and with edges that cut delicate lung tissue with every sharp gasp. Asuma envies the lucky bastards who get to die on home soil, still breathing sweet Konoha air. 

“What Division did they put you under?” Kurenai asks, voice light but her hands shake, just a touch. 

“Three,” Kakashi says, drawing back into the shadows of his chair.

“Scout and recon’s not so bad.” Asuma cracks his neck and rotates his right arm a few times to loosen it up a little. “Your odds of making it just about come out even.”

“Hm,” Kakashi says, noncommittal.

“I’ve been assigned to Five,” Kurenai says, picking up a full moon with slim fingers, nails bitten down to the quick. 

“You and Hatake both will be seeing the action a lot sooner than me,” Asuma observes. “They put me in Six under Commander Akimichi. I’m big enough to make a decent meat shield once I go down, I suppose.” 

“They’re saying that this is it.” Kurenai turns the card over and over in her hand, red lacquered backing glinting in the fluorescent light. “It’s The One.”

“They’ve been saying that since the war started,” Asuma says, chewing on his toothpick. “It’s been six years and we’re still here with no end in sight.”

“Sensei thinks so,” Kakashi says, quiet.

“Sure, like the Yellow Flash hasn’t ever been wrong before,” Asuma says, a little cruelly, just to see Kakashi’s face tighten under that mask. God, Asuma hates himself sometimes. 

“I trust in his word a lot more than I do yours,” Kurenai says, giving him a disgusted look that Auma pretends to ignore. 

“Either way, it’ll be over for all of us in one way or another,” Kakashi says, laying all of his cards down on the table. He has a suite of flowers from every season lined up perfectly on the table, the colors garish against the plain wooden table. 

Asuma laughs. “Well said.”

Kurenai’s mouth thins out into a flat line and she lays down her cards, face-down. Without a word, she gathers up Kakashi’s as well as Asuma’s cards and starts shuffling them all together. With an elegant twist of her wrist, she deals out a new hand and begins a new game.

**Author's Note:**

> Three Brights is a combination of cards played in hanafuda (a bastardized version of which they play here.)


End file.
